Bob Kerr: Exploring the murky issue of gun control in Sept. 17 lecture in Barrington, R.I.

Carl Bogus will talk about guns in Barrington next week. He’ll talk about guns and gun control, the Second Amendment, the Supreme Court and the lunacy of high-capacity magazines. He’ll talk about how,...

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By
Bob Kerr
Posted Sep. 8, 2013 @ 12:01 am

Carl Bogus will talk about guns in Barrington next week. He’ll talk about guns and gun control, the Second Amendment, the Supreme Court and the lunacy of high-capacity magazines. He’ll talk about how, when it comes to guns, a relatively small number of zealots can hold sway over a large number of people who are merely concerned.

Bogus will be at the Barrington Public Library on Sept. 17, and if you’ve thought about guns at all — about the madness, the polarization, the lack of clarity — this is an opportunity to hear from someone who has spent a lot of years speaking, teaching and writing about the laws and the politics of guns.

Bogus, a professor at the Roger Williams University School of Law, was deeply involved in the writing of the Brady Bill and the long struggle to get it passed. And he describes that piece of gun-control legislation as “jello.”

The bill, named for James Brady, Ronald Reagan’s press secretary who was left severely disabled when he was shot in the assassination attempt on the president, requires background checks before a person can buy a firearm from a federally licensed dealer, manufacturer or importer unless an exception applies.

In other words, it’s gun control of the very limited kind. And it’s part of the very complicated and highly charged world of laws and guns that Bogus will help to navigate.

The Barrington Library and East Bay Citizens for Peace are sponsoring Bogus’ appearance. (eastbaycitizens4peace.org). The event, which starts at 7 p.m., is free. And there will be a question and answer session.

This is the kind of event badly needed in the conversation about guns and whether some sort of meaningful control is possible. It is far better to listen to and question someone who actually knows what he’s talking about than to just lob shots back and forth. East Bay Citizens for Peace has spent a lot of good years promoting healthy and respectful dialogue on all kinds of issues, including guns and war. Bogus is the latest in a long line of people who have brought their knowledge and experience to the cause.

And those high-capacity magazines, the ones so prominent in horrific mass killings, are a good place to start the discussion because they are a good example of how confusing the whole attempt to impose real controls can be.

“It is lunacy to permit civilians to be walking around with magazines with a high number of rounds,” Bogus said by phone on Friday. “The problem with legislation to deal with it is that it grandfathers in all the existing magazines. It does not provide a real solution.”

And when it comes to the Second Amendment, the one that is so eagerly tossed into the debate by gun-rights supporters, Bogus and the Supreme Court part company. Bogus interprets the amendment as it was written, as conferring a “collective right” to bear arms through a well-regulated militia. The rugged individual fighting tyranny with rifle in hand is, said Bogus, “romantic myth.”

“But in 2008, the Supreme Court decided my view was wrong,” he said.

In 2008, the Supreme Court ruled that a handgun ban and strict regulations on gun storage in Washington, D.C., were unconstitutional and essentially made the right to bear arms for protection and other lawful reasons an individual rather than a collective right.

And so it goes. What seem clear words in the Second Amendment are not so clear anymore. And anyone who wants to try to understand why there should or shouldn’t be more attempts to rein in the gun epidemic had best settle in with someone who has studied and taught and spoken all over the country on the subject. There will be plenty to take home from the Barrington Library next week.

Here is a further sample, more Bogus on guns and the law:

Handguns are responsible for 80 percent of the gun deaths in this country. The more handguns that are in general circulation, the more gun-related deaths there will be.

States with the highest gun ownership have three times the number of gun deaths as states with the lowest ownership.

On Newtown, the fact that the country “permits” this, there’s just no word to capture that.

The National Rifle Association has been able to “whip up” its members to be paranoid about gun control, to believe that it’s all part of some elaborate conspiracy to take over America.

There’s more. This is a very good thing the Barrington Library and East Bay Citizens for Peace are providing. The question-and-answer session could be memorable.